SC Collegium recommends fresh 1 yr term for 9 add’l judges of Cal HC

Kolkata: The Supreme Court Collegium on Wednesday recommended a fresh one-year term for nine additional judges of the Calcutta High Court instead of making them permanent.

The recommendation said that Justices Biswaroop Chowdhury, Partha Sarathi Sen, Prasenjit Biswas, Uday Kumar, Ajay Kumar Gupta, Supratim Bhattacharya, Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, Apurba Sinha Ray and Md Shabbar Rashidi be appointed for a fresh term of one year with effect from August 31, 2024. It was reportedly learnt that the apex court took this decision despite the High Court Collegium unanimously recommending on April 29 that the nine judges should be made permanent and the Central government concurring with the same. However, despite the concurrence of the Centre, the Chief Minister and the Governor of West Bengal did not convey their views on the recommendation of the High Court Collegium.

The department of Justice of the Central government is learnt to have forwarded the above recommendation by invoking Para 14 of the Memorandum of Procedure which provides that if the comments of the Constitutional authorities in the state are not received within the prescribed time-frame, it should be presumed by the Minister of Law and Justice that the Governor and the Chief Minister have nothing to add to the proposal and proceed accordingly. The Supreme Court Collegium then consulted judges of the apex court conversant with the affairs of the Calcutta High Court. The judgments of the nine judges were assessed for merit and suitability. After taking all these into consideration, the Collegium is learnt to have then decided to grant a fresh one-year term for all the nine judges instead of making them permanent.